Jury Duty

This week i have been mostly sitting back, getting out a calculator and working out how much i have owed to me. This is because I am undertaking what is probably the most profitable thing that a student can do, other than selling drugs. This is of course Jury Duty.

As i have been working for my dad and am therefore losing money by doing jury duty, i get compensation for that, ie £50 a day. This means that I am already not going to be losing money that week, however I can also add the 62 miles a day that I am forced to drive, and get paid 44p per mile to do so. When this comes into the maths, i can grab my 6 sixer and shoot it in the air whilst hollering and prancing around in a bow legged fashion, because by golly thats around 77 pounds that I am earning every day!

However, despite this sudden pot of gold falling into my lap, it feels like it has literally fallen into my lap and burst my testicles and broken my legs. The process of jurying is not one that is in any way efficient, and has shown me how archaic, ridiculous and pompous the legal system is in this country.

The case that i was a juror for in the last two days was for a man, who skipping some details, essentially filled in a form wrong. The case against him was brought by the crown meaning that it was the crown that was funding the case to be fought out by two very expensive lawyers, to pay me and 12 other jurors a wage to sit in the jurors box, pay the judge to sit a preside over it, and to pay for the countless clerks and other officials to come in and make statements and pass around numerous pieces of paper. This case took the jury less than 3 minutes to deliberate over, it was clear that the man had done nothing wrong, yet this case must have cost the taxpayer well over 5,000.

How can this be a worthwhile way of spending so much money?

So far this week I have spent a day sitting in a room reading, and getting paid to do so, I have had a day off, getting paid for it, and i have also arrived at 12 then left at 2 on one of the days, it is a flawed and useless system. This is even after the 2005 reforms, this just shows how useless the system still is and how the people who are involved in not just the upper echelons, but also the people who run the system from the bottom have been indoctrinated into a flawed system.

Despite being on jury duty and thus not being able to work, i have sat at home on both monday and tuesday of this week, meaning that civil obligation that i have to take part in has actually consisted of sitting on my arse and making the occasional phonecall to the court to check if i am needed the next day. What a brilliant way of wasting my time, my money and my patience. I hope that i never have to appear in court, not because the ordeal of a possible jail sentence may be stressful, but more the fact that i will be forced to endure the ridiculous process that is the court system.